Focuses on the communicative significance of the pitch of the initial unstressed syllables in Dutch intonation contours, as may be heard, for instance, on unstressed utterance-initial function words like "Ze zijn" in "Ze zijn klaar (they are ready), or the initial unstressed syllables of utterance-initial polysyllabic words, like "Choco-" in "Choco 'laatjes" (chocolates). Results of the study are discussed. (Author/VWL)